At the Peking Zoo she admired the pandas. At one of the sumptuous banquets she reached for a cylindrical container of cigarettes, admiring the two cuddly bears on the label. “Aren’t they cute? I love them,” she burbled. “I’ll give you some,” Chou En-lai replied. “Cigarettes?” “No. Pandas.” And just like that, the National Zoo ended up with two precious and extraordinarily rare Chinese pandas.
